Rajdeep Sardesai is one of India’s best known journalists. In this conversation with Shoaib Daniyal, he speaks about his new book 2024: The Election That Surprised India.

Why was Sardesai, along with so many journalists and psephologists, surprised by the result of the polls? What did a lack of majority to Narenda Modi mean? Sardesai argues that the result does not mean an end to Modi but it does indicate that the Indian voter wants a pause on the relentlessly bitter politics of the past decade.

He also speaks at length about the fall of the Indian media over the past decade, as hate and communalism has taken over newsrooms.